Cowbells as indicated by their name were originally hollow metal bell chambers attached singly or in numbers around a cow's neck to facilitate the locating of straying cows by tracing the sound of the bells. The particular hollow, echoing sound made by these bells was found to be pleasing by many and was further found to be complementary with the sounds of percussion oriented Latin American music. As a result, such cowbells without internal clappers became a relatively popular musical instrument, particularly in the playing of Latin American music and "steel band" calypso type music.
In such play musicians attempt to harmoniously blend in the bell sounds of the cowbell with the other percussion sounds of Latin American or calypso type music. However, even skilled musicians have difficulty properly interspersing the bell sounds of the cowbells with the accompanying drubbing sounds created in the play of such music. The result is too often a cacophony of such sounds as opposed to a smooth harmonious blending.